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Long line of residents at Longmont council call mosquito spraying dangerous

By Scott RochatLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
07/23/2013 11:02:02 PM MDT

Updated:
07/24/2013 12:03:44 PM MDT

Ellen Schelling of Longmont grabs a television camera man's microphone after it fell off the other microphone while speaking during public comment at the city council meeting Tuesday in Longmont.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

LONGMONT -- A long line of residents confronted the City Council on Tuesday about the recent citywide mosquito sprays, arguing that the risk from the chemicals was greater than any from West Nile virus.

The objections filled the majority of a two-and-a-half hour public comment time, even pulling in residents who hadn't planned to speak about the spraying.

"I will definitely not have my children eat the lettuce from my garden they were going to eat tonight," said Richard Bindseil, who originally had come to ask the council for a second competitive swimming pool in Longmont.

Longmont's streets were sprayed Friday and Monday nights -- the first citywide spray since 2007 -- after tests last week by county officials showed a "vector index" of 1.18. The index indicates the risk of West Nile transmission; at 0.75 or higher, the county recommends spraying.

Joe Malinowski of the county health department's environmental health division said 95 percent of the county's mosquito control efforts are "larvicides"; treating wet areas to make sure the mosquitoes don't hatch in the first place. That's usually enough to prevent problems, he said, but this year weather conditions were highly conducive to mosquitoes, which is when the county recommended spraying adult insects as well.

"I definitely understand the concern with pesticides, but I think what it comes down to is risk perception." West Nile, he said, "is more of a risk to the public than the pesticide itself."

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The speakers at Tuesday's council didn't agree. Most noted that the principal ingredient in the spray, permethrin, is a carcinogen, a substance capable of causing cancer. Others emphasized an increased risk of breast cancer, or harm to young children, or effects on bee colonies, or its ability to last 30 to 40 days before breaking down. Even the night chosen to start the spraying came up for question.

Kymbre Governson of Longmont speaks during public comment at the city council meeting Tuesday in Longmont.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

"I think it was a bad idea to do it on Artwalk night, regardless of the emergency," said Olivia Bennett, who was cycling home from the evening event around the time spraying began.

One resident, Marc Osborne, remembered a spraying in 2003. The first round of spray killed off 80 percent of the honeybees on his property, he said; the second round killed the rest.

"Bees are not optional to our ecosystem," he said.

More than one speaker said they didn't get enough warning of the spray, which was first announced at the July 16 City Council meeting and put online the next day.

"I didn't get a phone call," resident Brian Hackworth said. "I didn't get a pamphlet on my door. I didn't get anything in the mail. I realize it was an emergency, but you still need to inform the city before you spray a neurotoxin all over it."

Malinowski said afterward that a lot of the studies on permethrin's toxicity look at its agricultural uses, where it would be used in greater quantities. In mosquito control, he said, the chemical is less persistent, breaking down quickly in sunlight. He said Fort Collins spent six months looking at alternatives but "the consensus was pretty much to do it the way it had been done."

He added that he wanted to come back at a future council meeting to make a more detailed presentation of what the county does for mosquito control and why. In 2003, he said, the county waited for West Nile cases to be diagnosed before doing major spraying; by then, he argued, it was too late.

"It can be two weeks before (West Nile) shows symptoms and two more before it's diagnosed," he said. "If you wait until cases are diagnosed, any control efforts would be futile."The neighbors, meanwhile, knew exactly what they didn't want to see. Brian Kwoba noted that most West Nile cases show no symptoms at all, that 1 in 5 result in fevers, and that only 1 percent have serious or fatal consequences. The chemicals, he argued, posed a far higher risk.

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